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For Most Households, It’s About the Payroll Tax, Not the Income Tax
While policymakers obsess about the income tax, they often lose sight of an important detail: For two-thirds of households, the levy that matters most is the payroll tax. According to a new report by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the 80…
Millions of Americans Have Little to No Money Saved
Millions of Americans have no savings set aside for a rainy day, leaving them in serious jeopardy if financial calamity strikes, according to two new studies released this week. Roughly a third of American adults don’t have any emergency savings, meaning…
Savings Accounts for People with Disabilities: Is Oregon Next?
Ross Ryan has a small but mighty list of things he’d like to someday achieve: He wants to own a home, he wants to study meteorology and he wants a car, so he can get around. But each of those goals…
Raising Retirement Age Would Widen Benefit Disparities for Disadvantaged
The age to receive full Social Security benefits should be closer to 70, according to a report published in the journal Daedalus. “We’re living longer and healthier than ever before, but the statutory age of retirement for receiving Social Security benefits…
Obama Administration Wants to Regulate the Advice We Get From Retirement Planners
Now, it appears the Obama administration wants to control the advice we can get from retirement planners. The administration announced it is moving ahead with a new Department of Labor rule designed to provide uniform fiduciary rules for anyone providing retirement…
When Should You Begin Collecting Social Security?
Deciding when to start collecting Social Security benefits is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make in retirement. Why? The lifetime cost of making the wrong choice can be enormous, and could have a huge impact on your family’s…
Retirement: Signing up for Medicare Isn’t Easy
You are eligible for Medicare when you turn 65. But these days, the decision to sign up is not a slam-dunk. The decision to sign up or not may depend on whether you’re receiving Social Security benefits and whether your…
SSA Shows Off Agility in Responding to Citizen Needs
The Social Security Administration is slowly breaking down its reputation as being stuck in the old world of customer service of snail mail and plain-old telephones. The MySSA portal is quickly becoming the entry point for modernizing applications for the Web. The…
How Taxes and Debt Upend the 4% Retirement Rule
The overused and oversimplified 4% rule is misused so often that it’s important to understand what it means, particularly as it relates to inevitable large single event expenses or tax and debt payments. The 4% rule implies that a new retiree…
Knowledge Transfer Plugs the Retirement Brain Drain
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Baby Boomers are staying in their jobs longer. A longer life, better health, and a desire for more retirement savings are prompting people to keep coming to work past the conventional retirement…